Lehigh prof faces new fraud charges in NASA research contract; wife also indicted

Lehigh professor charged

ARTURO FERNANDEZ / The Morning Call

Yujie Ding, 52, a Lehigh University engineering professor, and his wife, Yulija Zotova, 40, of Center Valley told NASA in 2009 they were ready to do research for a chemical-detecting device when they knew they were not equipped for the research, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney said.

Yujie Ding, 52, a Lehigh University engineering professor, and his wife, Yulija Zotova, 40, of Center Valley told NASA in 2009 they were ready to do research for a chemical-detecting device when they knew they were not equipped for the research, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney said. (ARTURO FERNANDEZ / The Morning Call)

Lehigh prof faces new fraud charges in NASA research contract; wife also indicted

A Lehigh University engineering professor already accused of bilking NASA out of research funds was charged along with his wife Wednesday with 10 counts of wire fraud in the federal case.

Yujie Ding, 52, and his wife, Yulija Zotova, 40, of Center Valley told NASA in 2009 they were ready to do research for a chemical-detecting device when they knew they were not equipped for the research, said Patty Hartman, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.

"The defendants' proposal claimed they would conduct the research at their business, ArkLight, and would subcontract some of the work to an area university where Ding was employed," Hartman said.

"The indictment alleges that the defendants knew they had no such facility in which to conduct the research and were, instead, using Arklight as a front to funnel federal grant money to themselves for research performed by students and others working in Ding's university lab."

A criminal complaint in November charged Ding with fraud. The 10-count grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday also charges Zotova.

The indictment appears to clear Lehigh University of wrongdoing. It says the couple concealed the fraud from Lehigh administrators.

"Unbeknownst to the university or to NASA, the scope of the work in each of the subcontracts actually called for the university to perform the entire research endeavor," the indictment says.

Ding and Zotova said their research was aimed to creating a "single photon detector," a device to detect trace levels of chemicals, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere, authorities said.

The couple eventually sent invoices to NASA, via the Internet, seeking $560,000 for work that was not completed according to the specifications of their proposal, Hartman said. They were paid part of the $560,000, Hartman said.

Ding and Zotova each would face a maximum sentence of 200 years on prison and a fine of up to $2.5 million if convicted of the charges in the indictment.

NASA's Office of Inspector General, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations were involved in the investigation.

Ding and Zotova in August 2009 said their ArkLight was a "small business concern," eligible for the NASA funding they sought under the Small Business Innovation Research program, the investigators said.

They allegedly told NASA that ArkLight would subcontract some of the work to Lehigh University, but ArkLight would do at least half of the research in its own workplace. That wasn't true, the indictment says.

"In fact, as defendants Ding and Zotova well knew, ArkLight had no facilities," the indictment says. "It was part of the scheme that ArkLight did not perform the required amount – or, infact, any – of the work for the … contracts."

In Phase I of the project in 2010, Ding and Zotova budgeted $50,000 for ArkLight's employees and $33,333 for the Lehigh subcontract, the indictment says. Phase I's total budget was $100,000.

Phase II of the project had a $600,000 budget for 2011 to 2013. Ding and Zotova said they would allocate $300,000 to Lehigh and $200,000 to ArkLight employees, the indictment says.